Hate crimes against Asian-Americans have spiked during the pandemic, with random assaults against them leading to the massacre of six Asian-Americans in Georgia just weeks ago. The scapegoating racist Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump repeatedly used such derogatory terms as "China virus" and "Kung Flu" to shift blame from his deadly and incompetent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the U.S.
In an effort to combat the surge, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act was introduced on March 11 by Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono and New York Rep. Grace Meng. According to its sponsors, the bill would:
"....address the rise of hate crimes and violence targeted at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) by assigning a point person at the Department of Justice (DOJ) to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes, providing support for state and local law enforcement agencies to respond to these hate crimes, and coordinating with local and federal partners to mitigate racially discriminatory language used to describe the pandemic."
One would think this would attract overwhelming bipartisan support from Republicans. One would be mistaken. Indeed, a month after the bill was introduced, not a single Republican has signed on as a co-sponsor, with Republican comments ranging from "it goes too far" (Rob Portman) to odd "that a hate crime bill has to be linked to COVID" (Susan Collins) to the ubiquitous "I haven't read the bill" (John Cornyn).
The hundreds of thousands dead as a result of Trump's mishandling of the response to the virus, and the dead and injured as a result of his bigoted finger-pointing that endangers all Asian-Americans (not just Chinese-Americans) are on their Dear Leader, and on them for enabling him. This cowardly refusal to act is just another step down for them into the muck of racism.
